Louisiana House Bill 650 and Act 687, which recently won approval during the 2018 regular session, makes families who pay tuition to K-12 schools eligible for a federal tax break by allowing families to open and use “START K12” savings accounts. This measure, referred to as the Student Tuition Assistance and Revenue Trust K-12 program, was made available to states through the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 in which funds used to pay K-12 tuition are exempt from federal income tax.
According to a recent news article in The Advocate, State Representative Franklin Foil of Baton Rouge stats that “If I’m a parent or grandparent or relative of the student who invests money you can use this… it’s a great program for people who want to take advantage of it.”
According to the LOSFA’s START Saving Program website (http://www.startsaving.la.gov/savings/index.jsp), “software development will be required to implement the new START K12 program. Since the software development will take some time, Act 687 contains a transition provision for calendar year 2018 ONLY. This provision will allow START Account Owners who had an account as of December 31, 2017, to make a one-time withdrawal up to $10,000 from their START accounts during 2018 to pay tuition expenses related to kindergarten through twelfth grade.” According to The Advocate, accounts will be open to all families in 2019.
